Cooler conditions suit Southern boy Brandon LaFell just fine

Wednesday

Aug 13, 2014 at 2:58 PM

FOXBORO -- If there was one player who had zero complaints about the rain, it was free-agent wide receiver Brandon LaFell.

After growing up in Texas and going to college at LSU, he’s used to 100-degree days preparing for a football season. Asked if he’s ever practiced in rain and high-60s temperatures in mid-August, LaFell didn’t hesitate.

“Never,” he said. “This is the best weather I’ve ever had in a training camp. I’m from Houston, so in high school it was hot. At LSU it was even hotter. In Carolina, we trained in South Carolina and it was hot. With 70, 80 degrees, if we had that in Carolina we were real happy.”

LaFell is standing out with the Patriots if only because at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, he’s a rare big target. Tom Brady has taken notice. Last week he joked that “I’ve got some of the little pygmies out there like Julian [Edelman] and Danny [Amendola], so it’s nice to have a little bigger guy out there from time to time who has a bigger catch radius.”

Brady used that radius on one play during Wednesday’s practice. He ran hard after LaFell snatched the ball out of the air, screaming “way to go 1-9,” referencing LaFell’s uniform number.

“It was one of those plays that we ran against our defense in the first week of training camp and I ended up falling at the top of the route,” LaFell said, “so there was a heavy emphasis today on keeping your feet underneath you and just go out and make a play.”